Canada Cup: Elizabeth Beisel Blazes 200 Back; Nick Thoman Doubles

By David Rieder, Swimming World high school intern

MONTREAL, Canada, July 3. AMERICAN Elizabeth Beisel posted the strongest swim of the third night of long course meter racing at the Canada Cup in Montreal, with a dominant win in the women's 200 back. Meanwhile, her compatriot Nick Thoman posted two more wins to complete a sweep of the men's backstroke races.

Bluefish's Beisel, a three-time winner on Friday in Montreal, checked in with a winning time of 2:10.05 in the 200 back. The time moved her to 14th in the world, improving from her 21st-ranked 2:10.80 from the Santa Clara Grand Prix two weeks ago. North Bay Y's Dominique Bouchard finished second in 2:13.38, ahead of CNPPO's Gabrielle Soucisse, who clocked 2:14.20.

Beisel failed to go five-for-five for the meet in the 50 back, where Soucisse took the win in 29.76, just two one-hundredths ahead of Beisel's 29.78. CNPPO's Hannah Riordan checked in with a third-place time of 29.98.

SwimMAC's Thoman, meanwhile, won the 200 back and 50 back to add to his 100 back win on Friday. In the 200 back, he posted the only sub-2:00 time with a 1:59.79, more than a second slower than his 1:58.65 from April. Toronto's Tobias Oriwol (2:00.63) and Greater Ottawa's Matt Hawes (2:01.14) rounded out the top three. Thoman later led a SwimMAC 1-2 in the 50 back, winning by almost a second over teammate Eugene Godsoe, as the two clocked times of 25.76 and 26.68. Club Wolverine's Jacob Hansen took third in 27.22.

CNCSQ's Katerine Savard posted the only sub-1:00 time in the women's 100 fly, clocking 59.98 to beat out Camo's Audrey Lacroix, the Canadian Record-holder, who finished second at 1:00.21. Club Wolverine's Caitlin Dauw took third in 1:00.43.

Club Wolverine's Wu Peng tracked down Tucson Ford's Darian Townsend in the back half of the men's 100 fly and emerged with the win in 53.35, over Townsend's 53.93, while Wu's teammate Mark Hsu finished third in 54.32.

Pointe-Claire's Ashley McGregor dipped under 2:30 for the win in the women's 200 breast, clocking 2:29.83, two seconds back of her 23rd-ranked 2:27.82 from April. McGregor finished ahead of SwimMAC's Justine Mueller (2:31.65) and Nittany Lions' Corrie Clark (2:33.00). Longhorn's Matt Lowe picked up the win in the 200 breast in 2:17.67, beating out Toronto's Warren Barnes, who checked in at 2:18.36. Barnes' teammate Marco Monaco rounded out the top three in 2:20.07.

CNPPO's Victoria Poon touched out Club Wolverine's Natasha Moodie for victory in the women's 50 free, 25.68 to 25.76. Poon finished three-tenths behind her 19th-ranked 25.32 from April. Rouge et Or's Marie-Pier Ratelle and Riordan tied for third with matching 26.06s. SwimMAC's Cullen Jones, meanwhile, won a tight sprint touch in the men's 50 free, with a 22.95 beating out teammate Nick Brunelli and Longhorn's Garrett Weber-Gale, who clocked times of 23.02 and 23.06, respectively. Both Jones and Weber-Gale have been much faster this year, with times in the top 25 in the world; Jones is ranked 23rd at 22.40 from May, while Weber-Gale posted a 22.24 in March.

Toronto's Stephanie Horner stormed past Pointe-Claire's Samantha Cheverton on the final lap for the win in the women's 400 free, 4:14.32 to 4:15.08. Club Wolverine's Emily Brunemann finished third in 4:15.57. Brunemann's teammates swept the men's 400 free, with Peter Vanderkaay winning in 3:50.63, ahead of Matt Patton (3:54.95) and Wu Peng (3:58.27). Vanderkaay ended up well behind his 13th-ranked 3:48.94 from the Charlotte UltraSwim in May.

Etobicoke Swim Club's team of Brittany MacLean, Jacqueline Keire, Amanda Reason, and Lauren Earp won the women's 400 free relay in 3:48.70, while SwimMAC Carolina took the men's relay in 3:25.95 with Jay Cormier, Adam Powell, Cullen Jones, and Nick Brunelli.

In multi-disability events, USA's Justin Zook took the men's 100 back (S10) in 1:02.77. Germany's Stefanie Weinberg took the women's 100 free (S8) in 1:15.29. France's Elodie Lorandi (S10) and Spain's David Levescq (S10) took the women's and men's 100 fly, respectively, with times of 1:11.16 and 59.81.

Victories in the 50 free went to USA's Kelley Becherer (S13) in 28.54 and USA's Lantz Lamback (S7) in 29.51. Becherer doubled up with a 200 IM victory in 2:34.44, while Spain's Xavier Torres (S5) took the men's 200 IM in 3:42.74.

Swimming World high school intern David "The Swim Geek" Rieder is a high school swimmer in Charleston, S.C. He swims for the Southern Marlins Racing Team and often negative splits his races. He can be found on the web at swimdr549.blogspot.com and twitter.com/david2swim.

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